FIRST PRE-BOARD EXAMINATIO 2015-16

SUBJECT-ENGLISH (CORE)
CLASS-XII
TIME: 3 HOURS
MAX. MARKS: 100
General Instructions:
(i) This paper is divided into three sections A, B and C. All the sections are compulsory.
(ii) Separate instructions are given with each section and question, wherever necessary. Read these
instructions very carefully and follow them faithfully.
(iii) Do not exceed the prescribed word limit while answering the questions.
SECTION-A READING
(30 MARKS)
1. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow: (12 Marks)
He was slow in learning how to talk. My parents were so worried, he later recalled, that they
consulted a doctor.
Even after he had begun using words, sometime after the age of 2, he developed a quirk that
prompted the family maid to dub him, the dopey one, and others in his family to label him as
almost backwards. Whenever he had something to say, he would try it out on himself, whispering
it softly until it sounded good enough to pronounce aloud. Every sentence he uttered, his worship
younger sister recalled, no matter how routine, he repeated to himself softly. Moving his lips. It
was all very worrying, she said. He had such difficulty with language that those around him feared
he would never learn.
His slow development was combined with a cheeky rebelliousness toward authority, which led
one schoolmaster to send him packing and another to amuse history by declaring that he would
never amount to much. These traits made Albert Einstein the patron saint of distracted school kids
everywhere. But they helped to make him, or so we later surmised, the most creative scientific
genius of modern times.
His cocky contempt for authority led him to question received wisdom in ways that well-trained
acolytes in the academy never contemplated. And as for his low verbal development, he came to
believe that allowed him to observe with wonder the everyday phenomena that other took for
granted.
When I ask myself how it happened that I, in particular, discovered the relativity theory, it seemed
to lie in the following circumstance, Einstein once explained. The ordinary adult never brothers
his read about the problems of space and time only when I was already grown up. Consequently, I
probed more deeply into the problem than an ordinary child would have.
Einsteins developmental problems have probably been exaggerated, perhaps even by himself, for
we just as clever and endearing as every grandchild is. But throughout his life, Einstein had a mild
form of echolalia, causing him to repeat phrases to himself, two or three times, especially if they
amused them. And he generally preferred to think in pictures, most notably in famous thought
experiments such as imagining watching lightning strikes from a moving train or experiencing
gravity while inside a falling elevator.
I rarely think in words at all, he later told a psychologist. A thought comes, and I may try to
express it in words afterwards.

Material downloaded from http://myCBSEguide.com and http://onlineteachers.co.in

Portal for CBSE Notes, Test Papers, Sample Papers, Tips and Tricks

Einstein was descended, on both parents sides, from Jewish tradesman and peddlers who had, for
at least two centuries, made modest livings in the rural villages of Swabia in southwestern
Germany. With each generation they had become, or at least so they thought, increasingly
assimilated into the German culture that they loved. Although Jewish by cultural designation and
kindred instinct, they displayed scant interest in the religion or its rituals.
Einstein regularly dismissed the role that his heritage played in shaping who he became.
Exploration of my ancestor he told a friend late in life, leads nowhere. Thats not fully true. He was
blessed by being born into an independent minded and intelligent family line that valued and tragic
by membership in a religious heritage that had a distinctive intellectual tradition and a history of
being both outsiders and wanderers. Of course, the fact that he happened to be Jewish in Germany
in the early twentieth century made him more of an outsider, and more of a wanderer, than he
would have preferred but that, too, become integral to who he was and the role he would play in
world history.
Einsteins father, Hermann, was born in 1847 in the Swabian village of Buchau, whose thriving
Jewish community was just beginning to enjoy the right to practice any vocation. Hermann showed,
a marked inclination for mathematics, and his family was able to send him seventy-five miles
north to Stuttgart for High School. But they could not afford to sent him to a university, most of
which were closed to Jews in any event, so he returned home to Buchau to go into trade.
Based on your understanding of the above passage answer the questions below.
1. Einsteins maid was diven to use a disparaging term for him because
(a) he was a slow-learner
(b) he oddly repeated everything to himself
(c) everyone thought he could never learn
(d) he had a linguistic issue
2. The writer says that one of Einsteins teachers amused history as he
(a) underestimated his potential
(b) dismissed him from school
(c) called him a distracted kid
(d) was ill-disposed towards him
3. Einstein felt that his discovery of relativity theory became possible because:
(a) he didnt think of space and time as a child
(b) his development was quite slow
(c) he thought brilliantly as an adult
(d) he was a creative genius
4. Einstein was popularized as the patron saint of distracted kids because
(a) he was dull and different
(b) he was slow and defiant
(c) he was rusticated by his teacher
(d) he hated authority
5. How did Einsteins slow verbal development turn into an advantage?
6. How was Einsteins thinking process different from that of others?

Material downloaded from http://myCBSEguide.com and http://onlineteachers.co.in

Portal for CBSE Notes, Test Papers, Sample Papers, Tips and Tricks

7. On what account does the writer disagree with Einstein with respect to the shaping of his
personality?
8. How were Einsteins parents different from other people of Jewish descent?
9. Identify a sentence which shows racial discrimination.
10. What was distinctive about Einsteins father? Why could this distinction not be exploited later?
11. Find words from the passage which mean the same as:
(a) investigated (b)associated

2. Read the passage given below and answer the following questions that follow: (10 Marks)
Mass confusion reigned as the liberation of Poland began. Ordinary feelings receded, insufficient
for the emotional upheaval at hand. All about people cried disconsolately for joy and laughed
dementedly from pain. Love and hate, joy and sorrow, reality and fantasy, alternated in rapid
wrenching confusion. Survivors pinched themselves to make sure they were yet alive, insisting all
the time that the dead too still lived. How could it be that they had all been taken from us?
The Germans had not yet lost the war, but now were on the run. Having already retreated from
Russia, they were about to be driven from Poland. At last they had met their match; total defeat
was just a matter of time. But my mother, my father, my sisters and their families, almost everyone
else I knew would not there to witness the end of the master race.
My mother had at the outset assured us this would happen, and Hitler wont triumph. Six years ago
or was it six eternities ago- the Germans had marched into our town. All Jews, they ordered were
to wear a white armband with a blue star of David. Take good care of these armbands, I heard my
mother tell a neighbor. When this war is over and the Germans are beaten, well edge these nands
with gold thread and wear them on every Jewish holiday.
Such was her faith, her conviction of ultimate triumph. With it I was able to endure, Naftali, you
are my ninth, my youngest. You are young, strong and bright go on living my son. Dont despair.
It is your duty to survive and let the world know what is happening to us. These were her very
words spoken to me just before she was taken away. Clinging to them I stayed afloat, did not sink
into the abyss, or surrender to those who shattered our world into useless pieces.
For six years I lived like a hunted animal. Around me almost everyone died, but somehow I stayed
alive, though a marked man. Both Germans and Poles had determined to kill and exterminate all
my people. How hard they tried; how very close they came to succeeding. Few would have lifted a
finger to save me, Naftali Ben Yitzhak, son of an orthodox Jew. But when posing Tadeusz Zaleski,
offspring of polish Roman Catholics, my prospects improved dramatically. My high Slavic
cheekbones, eager eyes under bushy eyebrows and snub nose would not betray me. And passing
for a Pole was no great challenge, given my fluent Polish, uncommon among the mainly Yiddish
speaking Jews in our area. As a Pole I succeeded far beyond what a Jew would ever have imagined
becoming an officer in the Polish army. In that capacity I controlled the lives of countless others,
was in a position after the war to secure all that I might need. But my thoughts were elsewhere
preoccupied as I was by staggering pain, the open wounds from a very recent past.
While my polish military comrades made plans for their futures in liberated Poland. Such
preparations were form ne impossibly irrelevant, haunted as I was by the memory of all those who

Material downloaded from http://myCBSEguide.com and http://onlineteachers.co.in

Portal for CBSE Notes, Test Papers, Sample Papers, Tips and Tricks

were a part of my life but who were Jews removed from the face of earth in one unrelenting wave
of violence. It was a murderous, irrevocable end to centuries of Jewish culture.
While waiting for hostilities to end my comrades devoted most waking hours to drinking vodka
and amorous pursuits. I could not. My work always my work. It became obsession; continued
promotions only drove me to greater efforts. Work was my antidote for gloom, my escape from the
void of loneliness. Though I befriended several of my comrades no one seemed interested in my
woes or in talking about their own. Take your pleasure while you could put on a happy face, no
matter what your real feelings such was the prevailing code of conduct. No one exemplified this
better than one fellow officer with whom I became fairly friendly. His name was Yanek. He was also
a Jew passing for a Pole. He was a dapper, dashing fellow forever preening his David Niven
Moustache. In late December we/were both selected for a special mission to Cracow.
Our task force, largely of officers set out, travelling mostly at night, in jeeps and army trucks
following the heels of the advancing Russians army. Staying warm became our main concern as it
was getting colder. In between we joke, smoked drank and dozed off periodically. We spent a night
is a building once a Jewish- owned flour mill which the Germans had recently abandoned. Upon
entering we began to search for souvenirs and in short order discovered a Victrola (a Phonograph.)
Records were also uncovered and to kill time we started playing them, mostly classical pieces along
with some popular Polish tunes. But then someone put a record on that in an instant penetrated to
my very core. It was the Koi Nidre the sacred prayer of the Day of Atonement. I was stunned. It
had been years since I had heard this mournful awe-inspiring prayer. Naturally the Polish boys had
no idea what it was. They didnt like it and called for it to be tossed out.
Wait a second, I said. Its classical Spanish Opera an ancient Castillian aria. This came to mind, I
think Kol Nidre was in fact created in Spain by Maranos. The ploy worked and some of the more
cultured fellow, ashamed of their ignorance suddenly recalled that it was indeed a Spanish opera.
In this way I was able to rescue the record and take it with me to Cracow.
Based on your understanding of the above passage answer the questions given below.
1. Ordinary feelings took a back seat when Poland was liberated because:
(a) people were hysterical
(b) there was confusion everywhere
(c) it was an overwhelming moment
(d) they were insufficient
2. Master race in para refers to
(a) the Germans
(b) the Poles
(c) the Russians
(d) the Jews
3. How we can say that the writers mother is a positive person?
4. Clinging to them I stayed afloat. What is the narrator referring to? What does he mean?
5. In spite of the hostility of Poles and Germans against Jews, how could the writer survive?
6. Why could the writer not bring himself to plan for the future like his comrades?

Material downloaded from http://myCBSEguide.com and http://onlineteachers.co.in

Portal for CBSE Notes, Test Papers, Sample Papers, Tips and Tricks

7. What was the role of conduct followed during the post war times of turmoil?
8. Why and how did the narrator salvage the Kol Nidre record? What does it tell us about him?
9. Find words from the passage that mean the same as:
(a) quest (Para 7)
(b) keepsakes (Para 8)
3. Read the passage given below: (8 Marks)
At the centre of the Indian national flag is a wheel. What does it represent? An enquiry leads us to
a fascinating path of Indian history. Mythology and Philosophy.
The wheel on the national flag was derived from the flag of the Indian National Congress, which
had in the centre Gandhijis famous charkha, or the spinning wheel, which played a vital symbolic
wheel, which played a vital symbolic role in the Indian National Movement. It represented a
defiance of the British industrial goods that had destroyed local handloom industries and plunged
the country into abject poverty.
The wheel also represented Buddhism, the religion which was embraced by Dr. Ambedkar, leader
of the Dalit movement. Across the world, the spoked wheel represents Buddhism. It can be seen on
the insignia of Mongolia. Sri Lanka, and the erstwhile Buddhist Kingdom of Sikkim. The central hub
represents attention and stillness established through meditation, the rim represents mindfulness
and the spokes represent various tenets of Buddhism. For a long time, the wheel was used to
represent the Buddha himself. When the image of the Buddha became popular, roughly from
around 1st century AD, the wheel transformed into nimbus, the solar disc behind the Buddhas
head.
Often the wheel is shown with two deer, one on either side it is supposed to represent the first
discourse of the Buddha in the deer park at Sarnath. This symbol of wheel with two deer is also
found in Jain temples. In iconography, the deer represents restlessness and anxiety of the human
mind and the wheel represents time that is constantly rotating, never pausing for anyone. Thus the
deer symbolizes the human reaction to natures rhythms represented by the wheel. In other words,
purusha and prakriti, the two principles that form the cornerstone of traditional Indian Thought.
The wheel has been found in Harappan seals, indicating that such wheels with spokes existed in
India over 4000 years ago. By Mauryan times, the idea of the Chakravarti gains great popularity
across India Chakravarti is the ruler of the world and his stories are found in Jain scriptures where
he is one of the shalaka purushas or worthy beings. The hub of the wheel marks the Chakravarti,
and the horizon (circular in shape) marks the boundaries and the spokes represent the laws and
regulations (dharma) with which he binds the whole kingdom together. The wheel also represents
the wheels of the kings chariots that are constantly moving along the royal highways and are
unstoppable. It is this wheel that we find atop Ashokas pillar which is another inspiration for the
wheel on Indias flag. Ashoka was the Mauryan Emperor whose kingdom about 2300 years ago,
extended from Afghanistan in the north across India right up to Andhra Pardesh and Karnataka.
The four lions atop the wheel reinforce it as symbol of Royal Power. Thus the word dharmchakra
takes a rather materialistic and regal manifestation, very different from the form given by
Budddhist and Jain thought.
(a) On the basis of your reading of the above passage make notes on it using headings and subheadings. Use recognizable abbreviations, wherever necessary.

Material downloaded from http://myCBSEguide.com and http://onlineteachers.co.in

Portal for CBSE Notes, Test Papers, Sample Papers, Tips and Tricks

(b) Write a summary of the above passage in 80 words using the notes made and also suggest a
suitable title.
SECTION-B
ADVANCED WRITING SKILLS-30 WORDS
4. Symphony Music Club of Chitra Public School Jaipur has invited you to act as the judge of the interschool Group Song Competition to be held at their school. You are Sudha Murthy, Music Expert at
the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training, Dwarka, New Delhi. Draft a reply to the President
of the club declining the invitation. (4 Marks)
OR
You are Rohan/Radhika who has got admission in a college in Delhi. As you are unable to get hostel
accommodation you have decided to look for a flat near your college, which you wish to share with
your friends. Draft an advertisement for the relevant classified of a newspaper giving all relevant
details.
5. You are Roshan/Roshani of 125, Tribhuvan Nagar, Pune. Write a letter to M/s Anubha Sales
Corporation complaining about the poor performance of the Microwave oven purchased two
months ago from their showroom, mentioning clearly the specific problem you are facing and the
action you want. Give all the relevant details. (6 Marks)
OR
You are Paarth/Pratyusha a resident of 26 B, Ashok Marg, Lucknow. During your college life you
participated in various curricular and co-curricular activities with meritious performance. Write a
letter to the principal of your college i.e. National Degree College, Rana Pratap Marg, Lucknow
requesting him to issue you a testimonial including the details of your performance.
6. The present day Teenagers are greatly stressed due to cut throat competition and consumerist
culture. Write an article in 150-200 words on the causes of the stress on modern generation. Also
suggest suitable solutions. You are Yamini/Yatharth. (10 Marks)
OR
Failure and setbacks are a normal part of life. They make us aware of our shortcomings and
encourage us to conquer them. Write an article in 150-200 words on -Failure is a Stepping Stone
to Success. You are Gopal/Gopika.
7. It is increasingly felt that the youth of the country should be actively involved in social service
activities. Their involvement will give them a first-hand knowledge of the actual problems the
people are facing and inspire them to play a more active role in nation building. Write a speech on
-Youth and Social Service. You are Abhijaat/Manavi. (10 Marks)
OR
The way human beings connect and network with one another today has taken on an entirely new
meaning and momentum in the digital age. Where we used to have handshakes and word of mouth
referrals, todays relationships are often begun and developed on networking sites like Google+,
Facebook, twitter etc. Yet their unceasing use is affecting real time relationships as well as work
culture. Do the benefits of social media outweigh their disadvantages? As Abhisek/Abhinaya draft
a debate in favour of or against the motionModern Generation has become a tool in the hands of Social Media

Material downloaded from http://myCBSEguide.com and http://onlineteachers.co.in

Portal for CBSE Notes, Test Papers, Sample Papers, Tips and Tricks

SECTION-C
LITERATURE AND LONG READING TEXT
(40 MARKS)
8. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow: (4 Marks)
Aunt Jennifers fingers fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull
The massive weight of Uncles wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifers hand.
(a) What do fluttering fingers suggest?
(b) What does Adrienne Rich Wish to imply by using the phrase even the ivory needle in line two?
(c) How does something as light as a wedding band sit heavily upon Aunt Jennifers hand?
(d) Identify the poetic devices used in the stanza.
OR
Yes, in spite of all
Some shapes of beauty move away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep
(a) What does in spite of all refer to?
(b) Explain dark spirits?
(c) What is the symbolism used in simple sheep?
(d) What is the unique quality of a thing of beauty?
9. Answer any four questions in about 30-40 words each: (12 Marks)
(a) I never saw him look so tall. What did the speaker mean by this statement? (The Last Lesson)
(b) What are the two distinct words that Anees Jung talks about in the Lost Spring- Stories of
Stolen Childhood? How do they impact the children of Firozabad?
(c) How did Gandhiji justify his disobedience of the order from the court? (Indigo)
(d) This was a new phase, just this last month, a reality phase. What does Jack refer to?
(e) Do you think Hana is both an ideal wife and a perfect human being? Justify your answer.
(f) Give an account of the kind of children present in the elementary classroom in the slum. How
are they different from ordinary children?
10. Answer the following in 125-150 words: (6 Marks)
Human compassion, kindness and unconditional support provide a healing touch to the troubled
individuals. This is evident from the story The Rattrap. Write a note on how Edla practiced these
values to effect a change in the Peddlers behaviour.
OR
Oppression and injustice in any form must always be resisted with courage and fortitude and the
real fighters sow the seeds of rebellion early in life. How did these values shape the Zitkala Sa and
Barna (Memories of Childhood)
11. Answer the following in 125-150 words: (6 marks)

Material downloaded from http://myCBSEguide.com and http://onlineteachers.co.in

Portal for CBSE Notes, Test Papers, Sample Papers, Tips and Tricks

The story Going Places captures the mindset of adolescents and analyzes their ambitions and
apprehensions through the lead character Sophie. Substantiate with reference to A R Bartons
story.
OR
Derrys brief but rewarding friendship with Mr. Lamb proves to be a turning point in his otherwise
miserable life. Comment with reference to On the Face of it.
12. Why did Griffin enter Omniums the emporium? What was his experience over there? (6 marks)
13. On the basis of your reading of The Invisible Man, attempt a character sketch of Dr. Kemp as a
man of grit and determination? (125-150 words) (6 marks)

Material downloaded from http://myCBSEguide.com and http://onlineteachers.co.in

Portal for CBSE Notes, Test Papers, Sample Papers, Tips and Tricks